I have this perception that most people believe in God (i.e. aGod), but struggle with what to do with Jesus.  Jesus is certainly someone that deserves our attention, but is He really a stumbling block to faith?  I have a friend who thinks that “Christians” are too opinionated, too restrictive, too “goody-two-shoes”, and most certainly exclusivists.  And yet she is puzzled by the simple fact of my genuine friendship with a woman who is very openly lesbian.  Can you hear my friend?  “Aren’t Christians supposed to hate lesbians?”  In fact no, we aren’t.  “Why?”  Because of Jesus.  “But I thought the Bible says that lesbianism is wrong.”  Well, it does in fact say that, but it is the act that is wrong, not the person.  Jesus associated himself with sinners of all natures and loved them unconditionally.  How do I know this?  Because I’ve read the bible thoroughly.

There is an old argument that goes like this.  There are three, and only three, things that you can think about Jesus.  

1. He was a liar, plain and simple.  He was not God, He knew He was NOT God and therefore He openly lied about this fact to everyone.
2. He was a lunatic.  He thought He was God, but was only delusional, and therefore a lunatic.
3. He was who He said He was: God.

This is a line of arguments that CS Lewis presents most clearly in his book The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.  Lucy, the youngest sibling, has discovered the wardrobe that takes her to the land of Narnia, but the other children can’t seem to bring themselves to believe her.  Then her next older brother, Edward, discovers Narnia but subsequently denies this fact.  What are the two oldest children to believe?  Who should they trust?  Edward, who is prone to lying and deceit, or Lucy, who has never lied?  They choose to believe Lucy because to do otherwise means that they have to treat her as a liar, which they can’t do, or as crazy, which doesn’t make sense to them either.  Once they choose to believe her, their eyes are opened and they too can see the magical land of Narnia.

They key to this line of reasoning, though, rests entirely on you knowing who Jesus is.  Peter and Susan, Lucy and Edward’s two oldest siblings, were able to believe Lucy because they knew her.  And in order to get to know Jesus you have to read the best book ever written about Him: the Bible.  In the last post, Gospel Truth, Jane brings up some interesting points.  Each of the gospel books (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) are written from different perspectives and were written to different audiences.  Collectively they give us the complete picture of who Jesus was.  They depict His humanity and His divinity.

But Jane’s question is, which one to read first?  Most pastors, and I believe my pastor would be in this camp, would say to read John first because John is about Jesus as God.  John focuses most of his attention on the fact of Jesus divinity and is writing to prove that one, single point.  However, John is a bit lofty, and if you are not familiar with the basics of Jesus as human, i.e. what He taught and did while on earth, John’s gospel may not make the most sense.

I am under the line of thought that says you should probably start with Mark.  Mark is short and factual and will give  you the best introduction to who Jesus is as a person and what He taught and did while living.  Then I would move to Luke who provides much more detail about the facts of Jesus’ life.  Then I would move to John and then I would read Matthew.  I’ve chosen to close with Matthew because Matthew makes the connection between the Jewish understanding of God and the foretelling of the Messiah (the Old Testament), which is an important connection to make when trying to understand Jesus as both human and divine. 

The key to all of this, though, is to get to know Jesus.  Learn what He taught (read Matthew chapters 5-7) and the miracles that He did (read Mark and Luke) and read how John makes the connections between these physical things as proof of Jesus’ divinity.  The decision that you will have to make is this: is the message that He taught, and the miracles that He did consistent with someone who is also divine?  Can someone be good and teach good, moral truths, and be lying about being God?  Can someone be coherent and sound of mind, teaching great and profound truths, and yet be completely crazy enough to believe that he is God?  Or just maybe, just maybe, He was who he really said He was.  Mark. Luke. John. Matthew.  Go read.

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